My New Norwegian Home

While there are a lot of good foods and bakeries that will make you drool, there are also a lot of foods in Norway you can't help but wonder in its strangeness, "People really eat that?" As a foreigner coming to Norway, it's expected that I find some cultural aspects strange or weird. At first thinking people actually eat moose was a bit strange to me, but I've tried some and it's not so bad. If I hadn't known better I'd have thought it were beef. However, US customs doesn't allow "exotic meats" such as moose and reindeer jerky, so in Detroit's airport I had to hand over the jerky I was trying to bring to my family. First and foremost, being so accustomed to chocolately peanutbuttery candy as we have in America it was a bit of a let down when I couldn't find but some makeshift Reese's cups and in place of all the chocolately marshmallowy peanutbuttery candy, I have found an American's worst candy nightmare - LICORICE! ...

I am very cheap, thrifty, frugal, what have you. Moving to one of the most expensive countries in the world has left me not wanting to spend much if any money at all especially when I still don't fully understand the currency so everything seems extremely expensive to me. I have sought out some of the cheaper stores, which helps my peace of mind - some. You also must be careful purchasing items online because the items purchased can't cost over 200 kr (about $33) but this doesn't include shipping. 1) -nille - This is a store in Norway (yes, a store in Norway with reasonable prices) which sells a little bit of everything. I love the "little bit of everything" stores in Norway - it almost reminds me of Wal-Mart or Target, but smaller. I usually go here to purchase knitting supplies or craft supplies. nille.no 2) ebay.no-  Most American clothing stores online can have really great sales, but when you click shipping to Norway you're shocked that it costs arou...

Norwegian groceries are extremely similar to American ones, but just a few minor differences. For example, there are recycling bins in the entrance of the grocery. This is where you can drop off your cans, plastic bottles, or glass bottles. You can press a button to donate the recycling money to charity or you can get the recycling money back. When you purchase cans, or anything bottled you're charged a fee for it, but once you recycle you get that fee back, so all in all you're just getting money back. However, the other things you recycle go into color coded bags into the garbage bins outside. Food goes into a green bag, plastic goes into a blue bag, garbage and unrecyclable materials goes into another bag. Cardboard and paper goes in its own separate bin. This is the machine you put your recycling into. Another thing I've noticed is how rare it is to find sliced bread. In America we usually have an entire bread aisle of sliced bread. Most of the bread in Norway ...